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Chemistry of Superheavy Elements
Author(s) -
Schädel Matthias
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.200461072
Subject(s) - superheavy elements , relativistic quantum chemistry , periodic system , table (database) , chemistry , periodic table , transuranium element , nanotechnology , physics , nuclear physics , materials science , actinide , computer science , organic chemistry , mathematics , mathematical analysis , data mining
The number of chemical elements has increased considerably in the last few decades. Most excitingly, these heaviest, man‐made elements at the far‐end of the Periodic Table are located in the area of the long‐awaited superheavy elements. While physical techniques currently play a leading role in these discoveries, the chemistry of superheavy elements is now beginning to be developed. Advanced and very sensitive techniques allow the chemical properties of these elusive elements to be probed. Often, less than ten short‐lived atoms, chemically separated one‐atom‐at‐a‐time, provide crucial information on basic chemical properties. These results place the architecture of the far‐end of the Periodic Table on the test bench and probe the increasingly strong relativistic effects that influence the chemical properties there. This review is focused mainly on the experimental work on superheavy element chemistry. It contains a short contribution on relativistic theory, and some important historical and nuclear aspects.